Remembering Rory

[cherryowen]

Idly browsing elsewhere earlier, I was reminded that it would have been Rory Gallagher's 71st birthday on Saturday just gone.

As with Stevie Ray Vaughan, a wonderful guitar player taken far too early.

Many years ago (too many; christ time flies), my mum re-married and one day a 16 y.o. me decided to rifle through my new step-dad's vinyl collection. Much of it was "eclectic" 60's and 70's stuff including Cochise and Big Brother and the Holding Company etc. One album cover caught my eye:-



Interesting..........

The first track was:-

Blister On The Moon

As a kid into Marillion and early Genesis, this was a WTF moment. Raw. Honest. Simple and effective.

Later on in the album was this:-

Sugar Mama

That was it. That. Was. It. Almost as if he'd dragged Mississippi delta blues kicking and screaming into the electric age.

My new step-brother - even at 16 - was a fantastic guitar player (albeit Spanish classical), so I asked for some basic guitar lessons from him. He showed me a simple I-IV-V blues in E, which started me on the road to Chicago blues guitar > Led Zep > Black Sabbath and such like. For years, all I noodled with was the pentatonic scale in an effort to play like Rory.

30 years later, I'm now fiddling about with jazz progressions and properly playing different scales.

But.

30 years earlier, the inspiration to play was Rory Gallagher

Here, live, with an appropriately PH tune:-

Souped Up Ford

[Wacky Racer]

First saw Rory in 1974, awesome guitarist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPNWQ6EOoKQ

[Escort3500]

Saw him at Colston Hall in Bristol in ‘77. He was utterly brilliant. Set was nearly 2 hours and he never faltered. One of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. So sad that he never got the recognition he deserved

[Stan the Bat]

Saw him a few times at the Free Trade hall in Manchester, always a great show and always the checked shirt.

[Escort3500]

Stan the Bat said:

Saw him a few times at the Free Trade hall in Manchester, always a great show and always the checked shirt.

Yeah, the checked shirt! Forgotten that. Wranglers I think?

Edited by Escort3500 on Wednesday 6th March 21:53

[Wacky Racer]

Rory in Taste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdf-QKyLeOs


Brian May on Rory & Taste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xG4mnm0bBQ&t=...

[cherryowen]

Slash discusses Rory

(and mentions "plaid" shirts.....)

[Escapegoat]

I've tried so many times to get into RG, and it just never works. I play guitar, love energetic blues-rock, saw him live at the Fresher's Ball at uni back in the early '80s. He worked very hard and played brilliantly and ... yet, I don't enjoy his style to listen to it. I find it hard to find the melody in his music compared to some other guitarists.

Not saying this to knock him, and he's influenced a lot of guitarists that I like, and the world would be boring if we all liked the same stuff, so it's all good.

[anonymous-user]

My favourite Rory track, from the album Top Priority.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ph5_SsmaQ

[JuniorD]

Just want to say this thread is ace!

Rory was so unique and amazing.

[popeyewhite]

I'm a Rory fan, but remember the only time I saw him, at Reading '80, the performance seemed a bit flat. I sure that's because I was 'distracted' though!

[Pothole]

Meh. I love lots of blues but I've never really understood the plaudits. He's pretty good but I don't see or hear anything particularly spectacular. I'll check out the tracks linked to here and see if they stir anything.

[ou sont les biscuits]

'Shadow Play' live at Montreux with Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna. Does it for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go9J9REtfdA

If I look at my record collection, the only artist I have more of is Frank Zappa. And that's only because he (and his Estate) released more records......